(Sports Network) - The Boston Bruins take aim at a fourth straight victory on
Thursday night as they play host to the Buffalo Sabres, themselves the losers
of four in a row.

The Bruins have opened the season with a point in all six games so far, going
5-0-1 while winning all four of their games at home. Their only setback was a
4-3 overtime decision at the New York Rangers on Jan. 23.

They have scored 10 times in three wins since, not including the winning
shootout tally in Tuesday's 2-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Nathan Horton netted the game-tying goal with just over four minutes left in
regulation and Brad Marchand had the winning tally in the sixth round of the
shootout. Tuukka Rask ended with 25 saves and stopped five straight skaters in
the breakaway session after yielding a goal in the first round.

"We did a good job," Marchand remarked. "We were resilient and we showed we
can win in all situations, whether we're up or down or tied, it doesn't
matter."

Boston has opened a season with points in six straight for the first time
since going 5-0 with a tie in 1970-71. It opened the previous season 6-0 with
a tie.

The Bruins did have their season-opening penalty kill streak halted on
Tuesday. They killed off their first 23 penalties of the season and added
another to that total before the Devils struck for a power-play tally in the
second.

Boston went 4-1-1 in six meetings with Buffalo last season, winning all three
games at home.

The Sabres hope to snap that road skid and win for the first time since
beginning this season with consecutive victories. They yielded 12 goals over
three straight regulation setbacks prior to Tuesday's 4-3 overtime setback to
visiting Toronto.

The game appeared headed to a shootout before the Maple Leafs' Matt Frattin
cruised toward the net in the closing moments of overtime and slipped a shot
past Ryan Miller with 1.5 ticks on the clock.

Miller allowed all four goals on 20 shots faced.

Mikhail Grigorenko, the 12th overall pick of the most recent draft, netted his
first NHL goal, a game-tying tally 7:10 into the third period. Jason
Pominville and Andrej Sekera also scored in defeat.

"I thought we dominated the possession game for most of the night," Sabres
coach Lindy Ruff said. "We had a lot of great looks and I thought we really
skated well."

Ruff's club played most of the game without forward Patrick Kaleta, who
suffered a neck injury in the first period after taking a hit from behind. He
had x-rays and was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons.

The Sabres said Kaleta was released from the hospital early on Wednesday but
was not expected to travel with the team to Boston.